1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to thermal ink jet printing, and more particularly to a thermal ink jet printhead and process for fabricating it.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally speaking, drop-on-demand ink jet printing systems can be divided into two types. The type using a piezoelectric transducer to produce a pressure pulse that expells a droplet from a nozzle or the type using thermal energy to produce a vapor bubble in an ink-filled channel that expels a droplet. This latter type is referred to as thermal ink jet printing or bubble ink jet printing and is the subject matter of the present invention. In existing thermal ink jet printing, the printhead comprises one or more ink filled channels, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,359 to Ayata et al, communicating with a relatively small ink supply chamber at one end and having an opening at the opposite end, referred to as a nozzle. A thermal energy generator, usually a resistor, is located in the channels near the nozzle a predetermined distance therefrom. The resistors are individually addressed with a current pulse to momentarily vaporize the ink and form a bubble which expels an ink droplet. As the bubble grows, the ink bulges from the nozzle and is contained by the surface tension of the ink as a meniscus. As the bubble begins to collapse, the ink still in the channel between the nozzle and bubble starts to move towards the collapsing bubble, causing a volumetric contraction of the ink at the nozzle and resulting in the separating of the bulging ink as a droplet. The acceleration of the ink out of the nozzle while the bubble is growing provides the momentum and velocity of the droplet in a substantially straight line direction towards a recording medium, such as paper.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,359, a thermal ink jet printer is disclosed having one or more ink-filled channels which are replenished by capillary action. A meniscus is formed at each nozzle to prevent ink from weeping therefrom. A resistor or heater is located in each channel at a predetermined distance from the nozzles. Current pulses representative of data signals are applied to the resistors to momentarily vaporize the ink in contact therewith and form a bubble for each current pulse. Ink droplets are expelled from each nozzle by the growth of the bubbles which causes a quantity of ink to bulge from the nozzle and break off into a droplet at the beginning of the bubble collapse. The current pulses are shaped to prevent the meniscus from breaking up and receding too far into the channels, after each droplet is expelled. Various embodiments of linear arrays of thermal ink jet devices are shown such as those having staggered linear arrays attached to the top and bottom of a heat sinking substrate and those having different colored inks for multicolored printing. In one embodiment, a resistor is located in the center of a relatively short channel having nozzles at both end thereof. Another passageway is connected to the open-ended channel and is perpendicular thereto to form a T-shaped structure. Ink is replenished to the open-ended channel from the passageway by capillary action. Thus, when a bubble is formed in the open-ended channel, two different recording mediums may be printed simultaneously.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,290 to Cielo et al discloses a thermally activated liquid ink printing head having a plurality of orifices in a horizontal wall of an ink reservoir. In operation, an electric current pulse heats selected resistors that surround each orifice and vaporizes the nonconductive ink. The vapor condenses on a recording medium, such as paper, spaced above and parallel to the reservoir wall, causing a dark or colored spot representative of a picture element or pixel. Alternatively, the ink may be forced above the orifice by partial vaporization of the ink, so that the ink is transported by a pressure force provided by vapor bubbles. Instead of partially or completely vaporizing the ink, it can be caused to flow out of the orifices by reduction of the surface tension of the ink. By heating the ink in the orifices, the surface tension coefficient decreases and the meniscus curvature increases, eventually reaching the paper surface and printing a spot. A vibrator can be mounted in the reservoir to apply a fluctuating pressure to the ink. The current pulse to the resistors are coincident with the maximum pressure produced by the vibration.
Japanese patent application No. 51160 filed in Japan on May 10, 1974 by Hitachi, Ltd. and published after examination as Publication No. 56-007874 on Feb. 20, 1981 discloses a method of manufacturing an ink jet nozzle plate having one or more nozzles or orifices therein. The method comprises growing a high resistance silicon single crystal layer on a low resistance silicon single crystal substrate, masking the high resistance silicon crystal with silicon nitride (Si.sub.3 N.sub.4) having a photo-etched pattern of the conical orifice to be produced, etching the high resistance silicon with a crystal axis-dependent etching solution to form a conical hole therein, oxidizing the surface of the high resistance silicon, and removing the low resistance silicon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,599 to Imaizumi et al discloses a method of preparing a high-voltage, semiconductor device. The semiconductor device is prepared by forming a silicon substrate of one conductor type having a surface of the (100) crystal plane, opening a rectangular window having sides parallel to the (100) crystal axis, etching the interior of the rectangular window with an anisotropic etching solution to form a recess or dent in the silicon substrate, removing the oxide film and growing an epitaxial layer of silicon having a conductor type opposite to that of the substrate over the entire substrate surface, and masking the recess and etching the epitaxial layer with an anisotropic etching solution to flatten the surface of the epitaxial layer. The remainder of the semiconductor device is produced on the flattened epitaxial layer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,976 to Chiou et al discloses a method of fabricating a nozzle array structure comprising the steps of forming a uniformed layer of inorganic membrane material, such as silicon dioxide or silicon nitride, on the planar surface of a monocrystalline substrate, such as silicon, preferential etching the substrate from the surface opposite the one with the membrane to form an array of openings therethrough, and etching the membrane to form orifices coaxially with the substrate openings. The substrate surfaces are parallel and oriented in the (100) crystallographic direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,935 to Solyst discloses a method of producing nozzle arrays for ink jet printers from silicon wafers that do not have parallel surfaces. The method comprises exposing the wafer to a light source through a mask, wherein columnar light from the light source is directed toward the wafer at a predetermined angle with respect to the wafer structure and relative motion between the light source and the wafer is produced; treating the wafer to render it subject to anisotropic etching only in the non-exposed areas; and anisotropically etching the wafer to produce uniform orifices corresponding to the mask.
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 21, No. 6 dated November 1978 discloses differential etching of mutually perpendicular grooves in opposite surfaces of a (100) oriented silicon wafer. An array of nozzles formed when the depth of the grooves is equal to one-half of the thickness of the wafer.
An article entitled "Fabrication of Novel Three-Dimensional Microstructures by the Anisotropic Etching of (100) and (110) Silicon" by Ernest Bassous, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. ED-25, No. 10, dated October 1978 discusses the anisotropic etching of single crystal silicon of (100) and (110) orientation and the fabrication of three types of microstructures; viz., (1) a high-precision circular orifice in a thin membrane for use as an ink jet nozzle, (2) a multisocket miniature electrical connector with octahedral cavities suitable for cryogenic applications, and (3) multichannel arrays in (100) and (110) silicon. To make some of these structures, a novel bonding technique to fuse silicon wafers with phosphosilicate glass films was developed. The membrane-type nozzles with circular orifices were fabricated by anisotropic etching of holes in combination with a process which takes advantage of the etch resistance of heavily doped p+ silicon in the etchant.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,191 to Cloutier et al discloses a method of making a monolithic bubble-driven ink jet printhead which eliminates the need for using adhesives to construct multiple part assemblies. The method provides a layered structure which can be manufactured by standard integrated circuit and printed circuit processing techniques. Basically, the substrate with the bubble generating resistors and individually addressing electrodes have the ink chambers and nozzles integrally formed thereon by standard semiconductor processing.